Tribute to Ben

11 p.m. We're on the couch in the lobby of Building 399, books, pens and iPads all around us. Around us are small groups of people drilling each other with questions all in preparation for the upcoming registration exam.

"Everyone else has an ex-intern helping them..." I start whining.

"My place didn't even have an intern before me, but we'll be OK. We'll get through."

He sounded a little flat. It could have been the fact that he had been studying all day today since 11 a.m., but it was comforting.

We met each other two years ago through a mutual friend, which ironically now whom I no longer talk to (long story...). We wanted to land an internship in hospital, we both failed, landed in the same company, and somehow now we're study buddies. We are having our exams on the same day. We also had our mock test on the same day last week and he suddenly offered me a lift to the venue. After the test he took me straight to uni, up an empty building past locked corridors into an empty lecturers' office, his secret hideout, and said: "We better study."

So for the past few days we have been meeting up at 11 in the morning studying and quizzing each other non-stop until 12 midnight. Yesterday we had a most unusual study session where we walked into a nearby pharmacy roaming the aisles for an hour revising all the different products.

He is several years older than me, drives an open-top four wheel drive which is the only car here which has not given me motion sickness, and gives me a sense of security like the big brother I never had. Our knowledge complements each others' quite well so we learn things from each other, something I would never get if studying alone. If it weren't for him initiating this study buddy thing I would have given up studying and be mentally preparing myself to fail. But together we kind of force each other to study, and at least I now have something in my brain that I can use.

I have not met many people worth holding on to throughout my five years here, and I am not sure if this good relationship will last. I do hope so, because for the first time in a very long time I finally found inner peace. However, even if this is a friendship based on benefits, I guess I'm still thankful for him being here with me through this time of despair.